10 Most Impactful WWE Draft Picks
6. The Rock To SmackDown (2002)
The very first pick ever in the draft was The Great One going to Vince McMahon’s SmackDown. Rocky was not too pleased with this news. After all, he’d been battling his boss off-and-on for years at that point, and working underneath Ric Flair was probably better for his health since Vince was often plotting to have him horribly beaten.
At first, the draft was a bit of a blunder on McMahon’s part. The Great One took some time off for his movie career (Vince probably should have looked into that), and didn’t wrestle at a pay-per-view for the next four months. He did capture the Undisputed Championship at Vengeance, and then dropped it the next month to Brock Lesnar. After that he disappeared for five months. So really, The Rock was an awful choice to build a brand around.
And as for that Lesnar guy...